That Time Buffy Was Worthy to Wield Mjolnir

Before Joss Whedon exploded onto the comic book movie scene with 2012's Avengers, he was primarily known for weird little cult shows like Firefly, Dollhouse, and, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But he's also a longtime Marvel fan with plenty of cred, having written for Marvel Comics starting with Astonishing X-Men in 2004. And even before that, in the 2001 fifth season finale of his most famous show, he deemed Buffy the Vampire Slayer worthy to wield Mjolnir.

Earlier that season, Buffy had come up against (and beaten) the troll Olaf, who used an impossibly heavy hammer as his weapon. As shown in the above clip, Spike, a vampire with superhuman strength, couldn't even begin to lift it. But then, when Buffy is preparing for her final battle with hell god Glorificus, Anya suggests that she uses "the weapon of a god," and Buffy lifts the hammer without any trouble. Cue Spike's grumbling.

It's a moment played for laughs, but it's also a pretty clear Mjolnir reference. First of all, Olaf had never been established as a "god" until this point; on the contrary, he was just a normal schmuck who was transformed into a troll as revenge for cheating on his magical girlfriend. Second, within the show's mythology, Buffy was only a little bit stronger than Spike. He had killed two other Slayers at this point, and he went toe-to-toe many times with Buffy, proving himself to be a formidable (if not equal) opponent. And in the context of Buffy's emotional journey this season, she was very much trying to prove herself "worthy" of beating Glory (which was also a metaphor for being worthy of adulthood, and romantic love, and parental responsibility—seriously, just watch the show if you haven't already), which culminated in this awesome take-down:

We all made a big deal when Captain America was almost worthy of wielding Mjolnir in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but he's hardly the first person to appropriate Thor's weapon. Long before the cinematic Thor even wielded the hammer, the first person within the Whedonverse who was judged worthy of wielding Mjolnir was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.